"There is only one power that determines the course of history . . . the power of ideas." — Ayn Rand

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Was America 'made possible by stealing Indian land and the labor of slaves?'

Yesterday, I highlighted an op-ed by Frayda Levin, an Americans for Prosperity board member, titled I'm A Proud Koch Brothers Insider. In the comments section, a critical correspondent with the screen name “Get Real” posted a hodgepodge of charges against capitalism and Americanism.

Starting today, I’ll post my rebuttals to several myths advanced in the comments. If we pro-liberty activists are to successfully defend liberty, we must be able to defend the history of capitalism and the American Founding. This entails getting history right. For a deep, integrated history of capitalism, I recommend The Capitalist Manifesto by Andrew Bernstein. In the meantime . . .

“America's early history was made possible by stealing Indian land and the labor of slaves.”—Get RealMy Reply:

Think about what you’re saying, here. “Predation and slavery are good, because they lead to prosperity.”

Of course, that’s nonsense.

Slaves produce far below their potential because they are forbidden to get an education, maximize their talents, act on their own judgement, pursue their own goals and values, and keep what they earn. If slavery—which America inherited from past history—was the source of prosperity, human history would have been one long economic boom prior to the liberty of capitalism and the industrial revolution, which eventually eliminated the practice. That was not the case. Slavery held this country back. The innovative chemist and agricultural giant George Washington Carver—a former slave—achieved more as a single free man than any number of plantation slaves ever could. How many Carvers—and ambitious black men and women generally—failed to flourish because they were locked up in the slave system? How much better off would America be today had this country’s Founding ideals been spread to everyone at its beginning? The loss to this country in terms of today’s prosperity because of the existence of slavery is incalculable.

To say that this country was "built on the backs of slaves" is a grave insult to the memory of the slaves. This country was built on liberty, property rights, and individualism. Granted, not everyone was free. It was only to the extent that people were free, not enslaved, that this country prospered.

As to “stealing Indian land,” North America was a mostly open, uninhabited continent—punctuated by pockets of primitive tribes. The idea that the indians owned the continent to the exclusion of the rest of the world is a purely racist concept. European settlers had as much right to settle in North America as the American Indians had before them and as new immigrants have today. Injustices were committed against the Indians, including stealing land they actually settled, and we shouldn’t minimize that. But the reverse was also true. There were also injustices by Indians against the settlers.Related Reading:

Thanks. I still ask, was the cost of the Civil War, stacked up to the net drag of the slave owners, relevant, in view of the moral factor? My answer is, no. If the cost of the Civil War was greater than the net drag (up to that point, or to any point), it was still worth it.

The slave states were ready to shred the union to protect an institution totally contrary to the foundation of the union, the Declaration of Independence. If they had been allowed to secede, it would have been the end of the United states.

Remember that the constitution was created by "We the People," not "We the States." It was the people who ratified it. If the Founding meant anything, secession by the South could not be allowed. Given the South's intransigence, the War was necessary.

About Me

Greetings and welcome to my blog. My name is Michael A. (Mike) LaFerrara. I sometimes use the pen or "screen" name "Mike Zemack" or "Zemack" in online activism, such as posted comments on articles. “Zemack” stands for the first letters of the names of my six grandchildren. I was born in 1949 in New Jersey, U.S.A., where I retired from a career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries, and still reside with my wife of 45 years. The purpose of my blog is the discussion of a wide range of topics relating to human events from the perspective of Objectivism, the philosophy of reason, rational self-interest, and Americanism originated by Ayn Rand.

As Rand observed: “The professional intellectual is the field agent of the army whose commander-in-chief is the philosopher.” I am certainly not the philosopher. But neither am I a field agent, or general. I am a foot soldier in that Objectivist army that fights for an individualist society in which every person can live in dignified sovereignty, by his own reasoned judgment, for his own sake, in that state of peaceful coexistence with his fellow man that only capitalist political and economic freedom can provide. While I am a fully committed Objectivist, my opinions are based on my own understanding of Objectivism, and should not be taken as definitive “Objectivist positions.” For the full story of my journey toward Objectivism, see my Introduction.

One final introductory note: I strongly recommend Philosophy, Who Needs it, which highlights the inescapable importance of philosophy in every individual's life. I can be reached at mal.atlas@comcast.net. Thanks, Mike LaFerrara.

Recommended Essays/Videos

Quotes I Like

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.—Francisco d'Anconia

I love getting older...I get to grow up and learn things. Madalyn, 5 years old, Montesorri student, and my grand-daughter

The best thing one can do for the poor is to not become one of them. Author Unknown

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Francis Bacon

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Ronald Reagan

Thinking is hard work. If it weren't, more people would do it. Henry Ford

Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries. Ayn Rand